Darrell Dexter, we need to have a talk. Things aren’t going so well between us these days. We started off so great. You won me over with your optimism and your folksy charm. I voted for your party as I always have, and you won an impressive majority and made lots of dandy sounding promises. Being young and naive, I believed you and looked forward to long, happy years of me voting for you, and you in return representing my interests as fiercely and ably as you always promised you would.
Where did we go wrong?
It started, as these problems often do, with a broken promise. You know me Darrell: I’m a young, educated, socially liberal guy who doesn’t make much of a paycheque. I’m exactly the kind of voter who always supports the NDP. Last election, I told my friends to support you too because you wouldn’t make life harder for us. When you promised not to increase my taxes I thought, “Well of course not, why would you? You know I can’t afford that. You know how hard it is for me to stay in Nova Scotia when I’m barely making enough to get by and Alberta is waving ever-increasing paycheques in my face.”
I was wrong. You ended up raising a tax that hit everyone, even the poorest folks in our province. I might have been able to get past this, and past my own embarrassment at having been proven wrong so publicly, but that’s when we started to drift apart. I started to wonder if we had any of the same priorities anymore.
When I worried about ever earning a living wage or ever owning a home, you were talking about health care and cheap drugs for seniors. When my friends started moving west en masse in search of better work, you were talking about raising the minimum wage, as if that would reverse the outward flow of youth and talent. The connection I felt to you long before the last election was gone, Darrell. You just didn’t seem to get me anymore.
The thing that truly broke us, though, is that at some point you stopped respecting me. You killed the Yarmouth ferry because it made no fiscal sense to keep it, and then you threw buckets of cash at a paper mill to keep it open when that made arguably less fiscal sense than keeping the ferry. When another mill in Queens County threatened to close, suddenly the math that worked in Cape Breton was no longer useful. Instead, you let the Queens mill close and then waited for an election to announce that, of all things, the ferry was making a comeback.
Because suddenly that made sense again.
I fell for you once because I thought you respected my intelligence.
What convinced you that I was a sucker, Darrell—the fact that I voted for you the first time?
I’ve been thinking of leaving you for awhile now, but your behaviour lately has made it impossible for me to stay.
First you toyed with me for months, teasing me with talk of an election and never coming through. By the time you finally called for a vote I was exhausted and, frankly, no longer that interested. But then you and your friends started to get sleazy. Your party bullied U-Vints to the brink of bankruptcy, then opened a campaign office in one U-Vint’s abandoned storefront.
You ran advertisements disguised as cover stories on the front page of the Metro, hoping the tiny “paid advertisement.” barely noticeable at the top. would make it seem less like dirty pool. When Anonymous accused your party of using shady tactics to flood Twitter with NDP shill accounts, you barely paused to refute them before running straight to the police.
Now that I’m leaving you and telling all our friends, will you call the cops on me too?
I don’t want to hurt you, Darrell, but I just can’t stand by you any longer. It’s important to me that you know that I’m not leaving you for someone else. Yes, the other suitors are back and calling to me, but you’ve made me cynical and I won’t succumb so easily to anyone’s advances this time.
I suppose I should thank you for curing me of my naivete, and the best way I can think of to express my gratitude is to man up and tell you the plain truth.
It’s over Darrell. We’re through.
Blake Hunsley is a freelance writer and amateur soapbox enthusiast. You can disagree with him about all kinds of things on Twitter@MaritimeState.
This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 2, 2013.
Voting is not just for the naive. Blake, I don’t disagree with some of your points, but I full on hate your conclusion.
i’m not a naive voter. i know the ship of state won’t turn on a dime and i expected little in the way of radical moves from the ndp in its first mandate. i was honest with myself in admitting many like me would have to wait at least until a second mandate to start to see real social democratic policies to be implemented and having it done incrementally.
i worked for the ndp campaign last time. i’m staying home this time. why? the ndp has courted the votes of everyone but people like me – the party’s base.
how many centre or right wing votes did supporting that white elephant known as our new convention centre buy? how many good paying jobs with benefits will there be in this new cc?
how many centre or right wing votes did cutting the education budget buy?
how many centre or right wing votes did it buy to get into bed with irving and the feds to showboat about the frigate programme -only to have it end up being substantially less than everyone promised (the bad news keeps trickling in since the big announcement, but no admission from your gov’t about how different the reality will be from the promises made and how you hope to mitigate that)?
how many centre or right wing votes did it buy to cut, and cut, and cut until you got our credit rating back to triple a (rated by organizations to have been horribly corrupt during the lead-up to the 2008 recession)?
how many centre and right wing votes did it buy to choose not to rein in the power of NSP over the UARB and start to right the wrongs of both Lib and PC gov’ts’ handling over NSP’s fire-sale to emera and subsequent laws that allowed emera to buy up other power companies and stick NS ratepayers with the cost of their growth? in fact have you done anything at all to let these mf’ers know that there is no such thing as investing your money and getting a guaranteed return – and changing the laws governing NSP to reflect this?
how many centre and right wing votes did it buy to balance the books by cutting the yarmouth ferry -only to offer $21 million to any company willing to try again? (hint: if it’s important enough to have a service that can’t turn a private profit – and the voters of the area have learned/decided that it is – then do the social democratic thing: start a crown corporation, build a decent service people actually want to use, create a few good-paying jobs in the area, and a run it at a loss if need be. do it until you blow all the cash you were just going to give away, then ask the voters again for a mandate to keep the funding up. a much better use of $21 million in an experiment if you ask me.)
your first mandate wasn’t like a liberal or pc government with a shade of orange on it like i expected. it WAS a Lib or PC government with orange on the masthead of your press releases. like i said, i didn’t expect anything too bold and i was willing to be patient during that first mandate. not anymore.
how many votes from left leaning voters did things like this cost you? how much trust have all these stupid ideas trying to curry favour with people who would never vote for the ndp in a million years (or certainly not within seconds of their cheque from the province clearing) cost you with your base?
you’re about to find out.
In 4 years time Mr McNeil will get the sack.
There are no easy answers.
Nova Scotia is a small , almost insignificant part of Canada, N America and the world.
Why would any business choose Nova Scotia ?
Every jurisdiction in N America throws money at business, as McNeil well knows, but he wants to pretend that he’ll only offer repayable loans. McNeil is lying to himself and the voters.
If one health board is the answer why not one municipality or one school board plus the Francophone school board ?
Atlantic Canadians don’t like to face reality.
When Shell gets drilling south of Shelburne I hope they find big oil and gas fields because there isn’t much else we can offer in the way of employment.
For those on minimum wage, vote NDP. Without Dexter and the NDP the minimum wage would be much less than what it is now.
and ‘downtownleroybrown’ – you won’t find another party offering what you want.
And government did not sell Nova Scotia Power to Emera. It was a privatised in 1992 and I briefly owned shares in the company, selling at a nice profit.
Hi CBoyce. I assure you that my conclusion was not meant to convey that voting is for the naive, that anyone should stay home from voting, or that I personally intend to stay home from voting. By saying “I won’t succumb so easily to anyone’s advances this time” I mean that I won’t be so blindly optimistic when I make my choice this election, but that my vote will be cast with a touch of cynicism. I will succumb to the advances of one of the parties on or before voting day, but not with the enthusiasm and blind belief I took into the voting booth last time.
I firmly believe all eligible voters should turn out and cast their vote. Whether or not the parties have inspired us, it is still our right and our responsibility to have a say in how we are governed.
Hmm. I tend to agree with Blake regarding the transformation of the NDP, or any party for that matter. That is what happens when one is vaulted into governing and confronts the reality of the issues facing the province. So easy to criticize – so hard to govern. I suspect that should the NDP be in a minority position or opposition, there will be a play for the leadership by Epstein et al. to pull the party further to the left. They will never see power again…
I tend to be economically conservative and socially liberal, but have never voted NDP. Regardless, I must acknowledge that they have done a reasonable job given what they inherited. My only beef is that they, and indeed the other parties, do not confront the main issue in improving our economy with bold moves.
Here’s a reality check: the only industry that WRITES governments cheques is the oil and gas industry. In 2009 ExxonMobil paid $452 million, on top of all the taxes paid for goods and services, high-paying jobs, etc. All other sectors receive cheques from governments. Onshore fracking is a non-issue as 171,000 wells in Alberta have had this industrial process since the 1950s with only a single confirmed water contamination due to gross negligence. Our attitude is that is fine, but it has never been done HERE. Our geology is no different than anywhere else, and truth be told, Lake Ainslie can lay claim to being the birthplace of the Nova Scotia petroleum industry. The first wells were drilled in the mid-1860s. Why? Because they could see the natural seeps leaking into the lake! The ones the Mic Macs used for medicinal and other purposes. Imagine cheaper energy through natural gas and employing young people in trades that would allow them to stay at home, raise families and grow their communities.
I also believe that the NDP, while laudable, is trying to create a California green economy on a pauper’s resources. We simply cannot afford it and I agree with Bailey on this one. The cheapest energy improves everyone’s situation and is attractive to industries and business of all types and sizes. Electricity is becoming a luxury good and in California’s case, and indeed Germany’s, even they cannot afford it any longer. Save the planet? Save ourselves first. Driving people and economies into poverty is a sure-fire way to keep them there.
The problem is that this, like anything else new, we do not accept any new initiative, technology, social norm, and demand it be studied to death. NOT making decisions is what we are well known for. NOva Scotia is a well-earned moniker. What is common today would have brought about THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT even a few years ago if the nay-sayers were to believed: drinking on a patio, Sunday shopping, buying food and alcohol with a credit card, drinking standing up, right turns on red lights, private wine stores, wineries, the list goes embarrassing on…
The point is we are unwilling to understand and accept risk, make a decision and move forward. Jurisdictions that do, and do so in a reasonable period of time, are growing and prospering, and at our expense. I have three children – all professionals – of which two have left and the third soon to go. They just could not stand the indecisive and patronizing attitude here and lack of opportunities. I my case, even as a working professional, retirement in Nova Scotia is looking to be quite costly, and my spouse and I are seriously looking at other regions and countries.
We have a great place here but inaction, indecision and ignorance are slowly though inexorably strangling the life out of it. Not being able to attract people to move here is bad, but driving away those of us who pay the big taxes and bills will be catastrophic. The tipping point is already here.
What a crock, try delving a little into the truth. We could not afford the HST at 13% and it was only there in a stupid attempt by Rodney to buy the election. The Yarmouth Ferry was bleeding cash in a way reminiscent of Sydney Steel and the government could have pensioned off the entire County for the money the rest of the taxpayers were paying to keep it open. I hope no-body will dispute the saving of the mill in Port Hawkesbury. As for the mill in Brooklyn try talking to a local ( I am one) The mill was bought by Abitibi under one of their shell companies for one reason, it was too good at competing with their Quebec mills and they wanted to shut it down period. Everyone in Queens county was aware of that and when the owners came begging to make it look like they wanted to keep it open Darrell said sure we will give you money but it will be tied to improvements to Brooklyn Power, a new stack and TMP and other things that would make it even more competitive. The owners refused the money and closed the mill which is what they always intended. Darrell then bought the land and the mill only instead of giving the money to the owners it went to the pension fund that the owners had underfunded to the tune of $60 million. Result, we now own the land and the workers have the pension they worked for AND we are rid of a corporate pariah. That article does even the Coast a disservice.
a few seconds ago · Like
Without meaning to be too cynical, have you ever had the experience of voting for a political party that delivered on all the promises that were made on the campaign trail? Humans being the fallible beings that they are, voting decisions often come down to the unpleasant but unavoidable “lesser of evils” choice. Hunsley might better serve his own political interests, and those of the readers, by writing about whether any of the other 3 parties are likely to govern more to his liking.
My my. Critical stuff. Have you ever tried RUNNING for office? Whew – I have and it’s tough. Everyone wants your ear, everyone wants promises, you try to be attentive and listen but so much competes. I can’t imagine what it would be like to govern, especially in this province where there are so many problems. I’m not sure about Darryl, but I am sure about the NDP, and I know at least their hearts are in the right place, for the most part.
All I beg is that people go and VOTE. Stations are open now, we can vote with just a pencil and a piece of paper and it’s bloody marvellous. Get out there, don’t whine, vote. You can whine afterwards, but only if you’ve made your mark.
Don’t like your candidates? Then GO IN and spoil your ballot. Not voting is apathetic and irresponsible.
Wow. Disillusionment thy name be Nova Scotia. Yes, of late we’ve been under-utilizing our resources, setting poor economic policy, overtaxing our residents and driving away investment. But it doesn’t have to continue that way. The biggest obstacle as that so many think that this cannot change.
A little optimism goes a long way – but yes, we need leadership that can lead AND inspire. Leadership with some real chops that knows where to trim the fat and where to invest (schools, business development), and how to effectively communicate real vision for the future of Nova Scotia. Not seeing much on the “inspiration” front just yet, but I’m still very hopeful.
(And yes, Blake, I don’t think NDP has a clue anymore, but there’s a solution to that too 😉 )
Where does leadership come from? I think one of the problems that leads to our disappointment with whoever happens to be in power is our common belief that we are voting for “leaders” when we vote. What’s missing is that in a democracy, the power of anyone elected to a “leadership” role is ultimately dependent on whether people do much more than simply go to the polls every couple of years. Gandhi, a great organizer who learned to use the power of nonviolence to produce historic change, is alleged to have said, “The people will lead, and the leaders will follow.”
But creating the pressure from the grassroots to make it possible for the people we elect to effect change is work, work that we are all too often unwilling undertake. Gandhi had a very trenchant observation on why it’s hard to get people to come together and do the work that makes long-term change possible. When you set out to make things better in the world, Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Depending on how cynical you may be, people who win elections mostly fall into the first two categories: either they ignore the voters altogether once elected, or they may even (at least in their private quarters) laugh at the voters who so trusted them. If we want real change in the world, then we have to be prepared to be ignored, then laughed at, and then ready to fight.
History is full of examples of this process at work, from the recognition of the rights of First Nations to women getting the vote. What’s not in the historical record are major changes that sprung from the brows of our elected representatives.
So if you’re unhappy with whoever is in power, simply voting them out of office is very likely to leave you just as unhappy with whoever comes in–unless you get out there and start organizing with your friends and neighbors to create an effective grassroots movement for whatever change you desire.
Blake, I appreciate much of what you have to say–but if you’re choosing “freelance writer” as a career, Alberta ain’t waving “ever-increasing paycheques” at you. No one is, sadly. I say this as one freelance writer to another, who’s lived and worked in NS, Ontario, and Alberta.
I’ll also point out that employment rates have steadily increased in NS in the past five years, as have incomes–but the preternaturally pessimistic Nova Scotia disposition doesn’t want to hear that, only about how doomed we all are. Also, Halifax’s unemployment rate is substantially lower than all of Canada’s three biggest cities, and has been for years. And incomes are similar. But people don’t want to hear that either. They prefer to complain.
Anyway, Ernest up above says that Nova Scotia never embraces anything new, but then in the same breath says that our attempts to be renewable energy leaders will fail, so let’s fall back on same-old, same-old oil and gas. Contradictory.
“You ended up raising a tax that hit everyone, even the poorest folks in our province.” You are so right about this. It hit my working class family very very hard. I like some of the stance of this party most of it ideologically but in practice they failed. I think I will vote communist instead.
When you campaign on the left and govern on the right, you’ll lose your left and left-centre base. Plain and simple. Damage that Darrell Daxter did to NDP will be felt for the long time. Cuts to health care, education, privatization of SAP, relocation of public service jobs and massive hand outs to those that need them the least are just a few examples.